NICTA in Brief Australias National Centre of Excellence in - - PDF document

Guido Governatori

SSRG Research Leader

• NICTA in Brief
• Australia’s National Centre of Excellence in

Information and Communication Technology

• Five Research Labs:

– ATP: Australian Technology Park, Sydney – NRL: UNSW, Sydney – CRL: ANU, Canberra – VRL: Uni. Melbourne – QRL: Uni. Queensland and QUT

• 700 staff including 270 PhD students
• Budget: ~$90m/yr from Fed/State Gov and industry
• ~600 research papers/year, ~150 patents total

• NICTA: Research and Outcomes

Software Systems Software Systems Networks Networks Optimisation Optimisation Machine Learning Machine Learning Control and Signal Processing Control and Signal Processing Computer Vision Computer Vision Broadband and the Digital Economy Broadband and the Digital Economy Infrastructure Transport and Logistics Infrastructure Transport and Logistics Health Health Security and Environment Security and Environment

Industry and Government Partners

Research Excellence Wealth Creation

Engineering and Technology Development Engineering and Technology Development

• NICTA Business Teams

Spin-out companies Industry research engagements National outcomes

Applications of NBN, connected life and digital productivity, E-business, E-government, business process architectures, secure distributed computing Infrastructure: smart grid, smart water; Transport: roads, traffic and public transport; Logistics: Ports, rail and distribution networks. Bio-informatics, bio- medical devices, E- health, genomics and drug discovery Defence: software and systems; Bio-security: sensing and data management

• Making sense of

the ever increasing amounts of data available around the world Understanding the world using images and image sequences

NICTA Research Groups

Achieving fundamental, game-changing improvements in the design, implementation, and verification of software systems Real-time control

• f large

distributed dynamic systems such as power grids, water, transport and security networks Using scientific results to model any

• rganisation or

system, simulate and

• ptimise it

Developing mechanisms to improve the experience of users when accessing

• nline information

and services, including wireless networks

Top tier publications and conferences International recognition

• NICTA Outcomes

Security software: formal verification technology (NSW)

• World-leading ‘crash-proof’ software (sel4 microkernel)
• International recognition for this research (MIT listed it in

their ‘top 10’ technologies for 2011) Transport (NSW & ACT)

• South of Wollongong roundabout (early simulation modelling

shows total trip times for traffic are 5% faster)

• Australia’s first ‘Living Lab’ (a unique ‘hands-on’ demonstration

space for industry and researchers) Water (Farmnet - VIC)

• In dairy, achieved a 38% improvement in gross margin
• In horticulture (apple orchard), achieved a 73% increase in

gross return (AU$/hectare) Logistics (NSW, ACT)

• Reduced costs for major bread company route by 7-8% which

effectively doubled profit margin for company

• NICTA Outcomes

Health (NSW, ACT, VIC & QLD)

• Developed world-leading technology – Bionic Eye
• Medical implants to manage chronic pain
• Technology developed for ‘drug design’ that is several times

faster and more accurate than world best practice Financial Services (NSW)

• Ground-breaking work with banking industry to standardise

mortgage applications: savings of $50M-$100M per year Digital Economy and eGovt (ACT & NSW, QLD)

• Technology to test new large IT systems before roll-out (ATO)
• New cloud-computing disaster recovery technology
• Emergency communications standard adopted around world
• Normative Systems
• Formal Models of Normative Reasoning

Balance between conceptually sound normative models (grounded in current legal theory and legal practice) and computationally oriented approach. Models of norm change including abrogation, annulment considering retroactivity.

• Normative Systems
• Regulatory Compliance

To ensure that business processes of

• rganisations are aligned with relevant

normative framework First comprehensive, industry scale model and

• prototype. Carried out trial with

Telecommunication Industry in Australia. Reduction of 40% of time needed to implement compliance initiatives

• Normative Systems
• Legal Drafting and Impact of New Norms

Developing methodology to study the impact of changes in legislations. Work with state government to reduce the cost of drafting new pieces of legislation, evaluate the impact of the new norms. Aiming at reducing red tape by 20%.